..I love WORKING GIRL...SABRINA..AIRFORCE ONE etc. Even now that Harrison is very old..I still love him. Tep always says that I have LOYAL quality..I love Elvis/Ricky Nelson etc even they died years ago.

I own most movies by Harrison Ford...my love dies hard indeed !!! yawares

Topaz comes in many colors, including clear, brown, yellow, orange, red, pink and blue. The blue topaz, with a pale to medium blue color created by irradiation, can be found in very large sizes at affordable prices. The fine golden-yellow variety, known as Imperial Topaz, is relatively scarce. Topaz colors are rarely vivid. The most common color is yellow with a red tint; the most valuable is pink to reddish. The coloring agents are iron and chromium.

The name topaz is most probably derived from an island in the Red Sea, "Topazos", today called Zabargad, the ancient source of peridot. In former times all golden-brown and sometimes also green gemstones were called topaz, which caused sufficient confusion such that today real topaz is referred to as precious topaz.

Topaz is the birthstone for those who are born in the month of November.

Blue topaz: Natural blue topaz is rare. Found in all major deposits and also in England (Cornwall), Northern Ireland and Scotland. Most of the blue topazes are enhanced colorless topaz gemstone (see common treatment)

Champagne topaz: One of the very few naturally colored varieties of topaz in a light to medium shade of brown, primarily found in Mexico.

Imperial topaz: The most sought after of all natural topaz. Its rich golden color is generally not enhanced by any kind of treatment. The most important deposit was found in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Pink topaz: A natural pink topaz is very rare and costly. The vast majority of pink topazes are heat-treated yellow stones that turn pink. The most valuable variety of topaz can be found in Brazil, Pakistan and Russia.-------------------------

Alexandrite is one of the rarest of all colored gemstones and is famed for its color change from green in daylight to red under incandescent light. Fine faceted alexandrite over 1 carat is more valuable than sapphire, ruby or emerald.

Alexandrite is a strongly pleochroic gem that will exhibit emerald green, red and orange-yellow colors and tend to change color in artificial light compared to daylight. The color change from red to green is due to strong absorption of light in the yellow and blue portions of the spectrum. Typically, alexandrite has an emerald-green color in daylight but exhibits a raspberry-red color in incandescent light.

According to a popular but probably apocryphal story, alexandrite was discovered by the Finnish mineralogist Nils Gustaf Nordenskjold, (1792 -1866) on the tsarevitch Alexander's sixteenth birthday on April 17, 1834 and named alexandrite in honor of the future Tsar Alexander II of Russia. It is apparently true that alexandrite was first identified (but not discovered) by Nordenskjold, but likely some years earlier, around 1831. It was Count Lev Alekseevich Perovskii (1792-1856) who named the gem alexandrite.

Alexandrite is very rare because of its chemical composition. While it is a form of chrysoberyl, it has an extra trace elemement in addition to iron and titatnium. It is the presence of chromium that gives it the emerald-green hue in daylight. Alexandrite exhbiting chatoyancy or the cat's eye effect is known, but very rare.

The original source of alexandrite in the Ural mountains in Russia has been worked out. An important alexandrite deposit was found in 1987 in Minas Gerais in Brazil, and other deposits are found in Burma, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.

Alexandrite is rarely found in larger sizes. The largest cut alexandrite weighs 66 carats and is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

JOHANNESBURG -- An elephant overturned a vehicle carrying two tourists, injuring both, on Monday, said South African officials.

The tourists are of "Chinese origin," according to a statement from Kruger National Park. One of the tourists said he was from Hong Kong, according to a hospital official.

An elephant in the park attacked the vehicle on a road at 6:30 a.m. Monday, and a medical team in a helicopter rushed to help the injured male driver, said the statement. He was taken to Clinix Phalaborwa Private Hospital, near the park.

An official at the hospital said the man was in critical condition with multiple rib fractures, and that his female companion was also being treated there for a pelvis fracture. He said officials planned to transfer the pair to a hospital in the Pretoria area.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

It is unclear why the elephant became aggressive, said the park spokesman William Mabasa. He is appealing to the public to be alert in Kruger park and try not to get too close if they see an elephant approaching on the road.

The vast Kruger park lies in South Africa's northeast, next to Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

****************And suddenly..I think of this JATAKA*******************

MITTĀMITTA-JĀTAKA: The Kind Ascetic And His Wicked Pet[Translated from the Pali by Dr.C.B.Varma]

This story the Master told whilst dwelling at Sāvatthi, about a certain Brother.

One day the brothers were all together talking about it in the Hall of Truth. "Friend, young Brotherfelt so confident of his teacher's friendship, that he took a piece of cloth, and made it into a shoe-bag. Then the teacher asked him what confidence there was between them, flew into a passion, jumped up, and gave him a blow." The Master came in, and asked them what they were talking of as they sat there together. They told him. Then he said, "This is not the first time, Brothers, that this man has disappointed the confidence of his fellow. He did the same before." And then he told an old-world tale.

********Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was king of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born as a brahmin's son in the realm of Kāsi. When he came of age, he renounced the world; he caused to grow in him the Supernatural Faculties and the Attainments, and took up his abode in the region of Himalaya with a band of disciples. One of this band of ascetics disobeyed the voice of the Bodhisatta, and kept a young elephant which had lost its mother. This creature by and by grew big, then killed its master and made off into the forest. The ascetics did his obsequies; and then, coming about the Bodhisatta, they put this question to him.

"Sir, how may we know whether one is a friend or an enemy?"

This the Bodhisatta declared to them in the following stanzas:--

"He smiles not when he sees him, no welcome will he show,He will not turn his eyes that way, and answers him with No.

"These are the marks and tokens by which your foe you see:These if a wise man sees and hears he knows his enemy."

In these words the Bodhisatta declared the marks of friend and foe. Thereafter he cultivated the Excellences, and entered the heaven of Brahma.

------When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth:--"The Brother in question was he who kept the pet elephant, his teacher was the elephant, the Buddha's followers were then the band of hermits, and I myself was their chief."

This is the Dutch Schultz story as seen by Billy Bathgate a wanna be gangster. A surprisingly good tale lifted up by its cast & written screen play. Look for Bruce Willis in a great supporting role at the start of the movie.

Dustin Hoffman turns in another stellar performance as Dutch Schultz. He is approaching his unforeseen fall from grace & it's this Dutch that Billie Bathgate's illusions of gang life are measured by & eventually shattered by. Loren Dean as Billy plays his part perfectly sometimes naive, sometimes streetwise. Dutch's girl friend is played by the ever beautiful Nicole Kidman who is married but tells Billy in relation to her being with Dutch "No, I'm not his gal. He's my gangster." She plays it that way too & gets a 5 star & you know why for.

When the law comes after Dutch with "Tax" charges he is momentarily able to defend himself but as other charges are filed he decides to remove the attorney's causing all the problems right up to the U. S. attorney that started it all. Dutch's superiors which he don't recognize as his superior's no more have to reign in their mad dog & do so.

This movie is always told through the eyes of Billie & his gangland tutor played by Steven Hill of Law & Order fame, just one fine acting job. Some claim Hoffman is so powerful here he overshadows the rest of the cast but I think that's shallow-sighted. Dutch Schultz was a overpowering man & only those that were able to subjugate themselves in his presence survived for long. That makes the other portrayals dead accurate & earns those actors & actresses their own deserved praise for this show.